Imagine you are sipping tea or coffee while discussing various issues with a broad and diverse network of students, colleagues, and friends brought together by the common bond of physics, graduate school, and the physics GRE.

WhoaNonstop wrote:I'm waiting to send my applications in after I have received my scores from ETS this Saturday. Everything else is done for me otherwise!

-Riley

Why? Are you dropping some of your schools basing on your score? Are you going to touch up your application to reflect your score?

I'm doing this so as to be able to self-report the score on the application forms. I know it's unnecessary, but my hope is that some may take a look at my application before they receive official scores if I've put down the scores on the web form.

WhoaNonstop wrote:I'm waiting to send my applications in after I have received my scores from ETS this Saturday. Everything else is done for me otherwise!

-Riley

Why? Are you dropping some of your schools basing on your score? Are you going to touch up your application to reflect your score?

Slight possibility I may drop Princeton depending on score. Otherwise, I'm just waiting cause many of the applications have a slot to put "Physics GRE" and although I know they don't expect you to know this in time, I figured I could wait until then and enter it. =P

axiomofchoice wrote:I'm doing this so as to be able to self-report the score on the application forms. I know it's unnecessary, but my hope is that some may take a look at my application before they receive official scores if I've put down the scores on the web form.

I would do the same thing for the same reason, but the sense I'm getting is that nobody is going to look at applications before mid January.

Good prospective physics grad students, who have completed sending out their applications, get a reward. I suggest an evening in bed, accompanied by 4 oz of white chocolate truffles, a small serving of an adult beverage, and a mediocre popular novel. In that order.

P.S. The book on Julian Schwinger's elegant introduction to quantum mechanics through the algebra of symbolic measurements (also called the "measurement algebra") is just there for show. Wouldn't dream of doing physics on a celebratory evening. But perhaps a bit of the adult beverage will be sipped in his honor.

negru wrote:Personally I'll be going for something more in this spirit:

After some effort, I managed to fix the link. I think:

And my first LoR writer has turned in his opinions. I'm thinking maybe I'll actually get my applications completed. (I still need to send ETS scores and transcripts to most of the schools. It's a mess.)

Last edited by CarlBrannen on Mon Dec 13, 2010 1:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

WhoaNonstop wrote:One of my recommendation writers was taking forever to finish his letter, but now he has started to submit.

I've got one done and two to go, but I'm not worried. It seems that when you read the fine print, the schools with the Dec 15th deadlines take LoRs two weeks later.

And I've just had the official GRE score reports sent out. What a hassle. The online thingy wouldn't work. It put me into an infinite loop where I repeatedly had to modify my password and then got logged out, and then it locked my account. In retrospect there may be limited hours of operation with it. So I had to use the phone number 1-888-473-7267. I had a nice long conversation with the lady who takes the institution codes. If I end up in New Jersey I'll drop by and say "hi". Hmmmm. I've never dated a robot before. I mean, for more than just one date.

So, assuming my LoRs get there, I am done with the more intelligent schools (that don't require official transcripts until you actually are admitted and decide to go there):CaltechUC BerserkeleyPrinceton

The less intelligent schools:U. Tejas at Austin: 1 copyU. the other W at Seattle: 1 copyMIT: 1 copyStanford: 2 copies (I suppose the extra copy will be sent to Stanfod)Harvard: 1 copyUC Sand & Beach: 2 copies (maybe their copier is broken -- too much grit)

Okay, got my UCI transcripts sent to the above. A couple weeks ago New Mexico Tech sent me a big batch of transcripts for me to mail myself, and I can drop by Seattle and pick up transcripts from the University of The Other Washington tomorrow. I could have this wrapped up on Tuesday.

6 down, 3 more to go. Yay for me! The real work I still need to do is to write Berkeley's whatever personal history statement (oh wait, flash back to my college apps... maybe I should just steal a paragraph or so from my personal statement then).

At this moment I'm afflicted by a serious case of paranoia. I keep reading the websites of the schools in search of some missing requirements that I have not noticed. Not that my paranoia is unfounded: only 2 days ago did I remember that I'm supposed to send in 2 copies of transcripts to Stanford. Really??? Don't they have a copy machine? I do wish the requirements are stated more clearly, not all over the places. I hate seeing "ohhh here are the graduate school's requirements; but you should check the department you are applying to for any additional requirements, blah blah blah..." Is it that hard to give a clear checklist on the application itself on what to submit, instead of having the applicants to hunt all over the place? U of Chicago and U of Washington wins hand down in organizing things clearly.

Mine are in! Well, 10 of 12 anyway. Penn State's form is glitching and Michigan wants some "personal statement" in /addition/ to a statement of purpose. But transcripts & GRE scores are sent, fees are paid, half the letters are in.

I've found this forum extremely helpful during this process, from assessing my profile to writing my SOP to knowing that I could get my PGRE score on Saturday instead of Monday. Thanks to all who post here.

axiomofchoice wrote:6 down, 3 more to go. Yay for me! The real work I still need to do is to write Berkeley's whatever personal history statement (oh wait, flash back to my college apps... maybe I should just steal a paragraph or so from my personal statement then).

At this moment I'm afflicted by a serious case of paranoia. I keep reading the websites of the schools in search of some missing requirements that I have not noticed. Not that my paranoia is unfounded: only 2 days ago did I remember that I'm supposed to send in 2 copies of transcripts to Stanford. Really??? Don't they have a copy machine? I do wish the requirements are stated more clearly, not all over the places. I hate seeing "ohhh here are the graduate school's requirements; but you should check the department you are applying to for any additional requirements, blah blah blah..." Is it that hard to give a clear checklist on the application itself on what to submit, instead of having the applicants to hunt all over the place? U of Chicago and U of Washington wins hand down in organizing things clearly.

UChicago has Ms. McNeill. She's awesome.Every university should have (a) Ms. McNeill...

Turns out that U. Washyourhandsington (new state motto) will only allow you to buy 5 official transcripts per day. I had one lying around so I was two short for satisfying everyone. UCSB wants two copies and got shorted. When UW gets around to sending the missing transcripts I'll ship them on to UCSB. 8 down, 1 to go.

CarlBrannen wrote:Turns out that U. Washyourhandsington (new state motto) will only allow you to buy 5 official transcripts per day. I had one lying around so I was two short for satisfying everyone. UCSB wants two copies and got shorted. When UW gets around to sending the missing transcripts I'll ship them on to UCSB. 8 down, 1 to go.

An educational institution that restricts you from spending money? What kind of place is this! There is a limit at my school, but they are free, which makes some sense.

CarlBrannen wrote:Turns out that U. Washyourhandsington (new state motto) will only allow you to buy 5 official transcripts per day. I had one lying around so I was two short for satisfying everyone. UCSB wants two copies and got shorted. When UW gets around to sending the missing transcripts I'll ship them on to UCSB. 8 down, 1 to go.

An educational institution that restricts you from spending money? What kind of place is this! There is a limit at my school, but they are free, which makes some sense.

-Riley

The University of the other Washington charges $9 each! And when I bought one a few weeks ago, they didn't bother to tell me there's a limit. Nor is any limit mentioned in their oodles of posters telling how to fill out the forms nor are they listed on the forms. Hmmm. Maybe they created the rule special for me.

My alma mater, New Mexico Tech, charges $15 for the first official transcript per academic year and the rest are free, apparently with no limit.

Did I mention that I'm thinking of starting up a waste paper pilot process plant in the area? Nice to get paper that's already sorted as to type...

I was up for some unpleasant surprises in my school, too. Past years we get 5 free transcripts every week, but since beginning of this semester, only 1 free per week, then $5 afterward. I initially thought I would just go there every week, but I eventually gave up and just paid.

I see fewer and fewer reasons for a school to ask for official transcript before they admit students. I also discover that my school can also send out official transcript via email??? Not sure how that works, but in any case, we should always think about the environment and save paper, and e-transcripts seem perfectly environment-friendly

Why don't these schools just ask 5$ dollars more on the app fee, and take the damn transcripts themselves ? Why is there a third party actually in charge of transcripts (national clearinghouse smth) ??Why give them money, just so they tell my school to print the transcripts ???Why can't the school just print and send everything ????Why can't it send them online ?????Why 2 copies ?????????????

The University of Washyourhandsington saw fit to mail me my remaining transcripts. I sent them off to UCSB. Meanwhile, U. Texas, Austin now shows my GRE scores arrived on December 16th. The amazing thing is that I think I paid ETS to send them only around December 12th. Not sure how they got in so fast; I hope the same applies at the other schools.

CarlBrannen wrote:The University of Washyourhandsington saw fit to mail me my remaining transcripts. I sent them off to UCSB. Meanwhile, U. Texas, Austin now shows my GRE scores arrived on December 16th. The amazing thing is that I think I paid ETS to send them only around December 12th. Not sure how they got in so fast; I hope the same applies at the other schools.

Just to give you some peace of mind. All of my GRE scores that I ordered via ETS on December 11th arrived on December 15th. So, interestingly enough, if you really were pushing to get something in for a deadline, you could still make it even after finding out your scores. =P

WhoaNonstop wrote:Just to give you some peace of mind. All of my GRE scores that I ordered via ETS on December 11th arrived on December 15th. So, interestingly enough, if you really were pushing to get something in for a deadline, you could still make it even after finding out your scores. =P

-Riley

I actually I ordered some on the 13th and others on the midnight/morning of 14th, and all the scores are sent on the 15th. So maybe Wednesdays are when ETS post stuff.